Ruin

The locals had warned him — the deep taiga was ****. Too cold, too vast, too empty.

But Grant Mallory wasn’t one to listen.

Snow crunched under his boots as he trudged through the ancient pines, their blackened trunks clawing at the milky sky like the fingers of buried giants. For days he'd followed whispers — faint, almost fevered rumors of something hidden where no man dared linger. His compass spun uselessly, and the GPS failed two days back. It didn’t matter. Something inside him knew where to go, pulling him onward through the thickening cold.

Then he saw them.

The forest broke without warning into a gaping wound in the earth, a scar of black stone erupting from the snow. Jagged spires jutted skyward, crooked and sharp like the ribs of some long-dead beast. They gleamed dully under the sallow sun, their surfaces unnaturally smooth, slick like wet bone despite the biting air. Some twisted toward each other as if frozen mid-collapse, while others leaned away, like they were recoiling from something buried deep beneath the surface.

Grant stood at the threshold for a long moment, breath steaming in the frigid air. His heart thudded slow and heavy in his chest.

No one's ever found this before.

The thought filled him with a fierce, almost possessive pride.

He adjusted the straps of his pack and stepped inside.

The change was immediate.

The air grew dry — bone dry — and warm. It wrapped around him like a living thing, sliding over his skin under his jacket. The black stone underfoot felt almost soft compared to the packed snow outside, like stepping onto ancient leather. The light dimmed quickly as the jagged entrance behind him shrank, swallowed by the throat of the ruin. His headlamp clicked on, cutting a weak beam through the heavy gloom.

The deeper he ventured, the hotter it became.

At first, it was a relief. He stripped off his gloves, then his coat, tying it around his waist. Sweat slicked his back by the time he passed what looked like a massive archway — or maybe a maw — its edges serrated like broken teeth. Beyond, the tunnel narrowed, the walls pressed close, covered in twisting, unnatural carvings he couldn’t decipher.

The heat seemed to pulse now, beating against him in thick, invisible waves. His skin prickled. The air buzzed faintly, a low, almost inaudible vibration that trembled through his bones.

Something's alive down here.

Grant paused, wiping sweat from his brow, his breath growing ragged. The thought should have scared him — maybe it did — but it was drowned by a stronger, gnawing excitement.

This is what I came for.

He pushed deeper into the ruin, drawn onward by the rising heat, by the promise of something no one else had dared to find.

Something waiting for him in the dark.